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Charles Barkley: 'I cannot believe how bad the NBA is'

"As an NBA fan I want to apologize to the fans," Barkley said during his on-air interview transcribed by Sports Radio Interviews. "I cannot believe how bad the NBA is right now. I'm a fan first and foremost; watching the NBA right now, I'm embarrassed about the product we're putting out there right now. It's no fun for me to watch these games. I feel bad for the fans."http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2012/02/charles-barkley-i-cannot-believe-how-bad-the-nba-is/1

Well it is, but lets be honest here. After the initial few games, when is regular season NBA ball ever all that exciting to watch? Players get tired, bored, injured, and general disinterested in the midst of the ridiculously long season. Add on all these back to back games and the fatigue and injury factors go up.

I don't get why some of the teams that know they're going to be in the postseason haven't been resting players more. I thought we'd have seen Popovich sit Duncan a few times by now. Why not sit a couple of the Heat stars once a week? They obviously have no motivation to play against lower level teams and the coaches get the opportunity to give guys that haven't seen the court in a while some extended minutes.

The 1993 NBA MVP insists the Bulls and the Miami Heat are far superior to anyone in the Eastern Conference. In the West, he singles out the Portland Trail Blazers, Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder as "so far ahead of everybody it's scary." Barkley also offers some faint praise to up-and-coming teams, the Indiana Pacers and Philadelphia 76ers, currently the fourth- and fifth-best teams in the Eastern Conference.

Portland and Denver as so far ahead of everybody? That's news to me. OKC is a good team. Give them a few more division games before they're determined the best team in the world.

Miami and Chicago are good too. For now, Indiana and Philly both look good too. I wouldn't discount Dallas, both L.A. teams, and my Spurs either.

I think Charles is right. About 25 years ago, when Charles was starting out, there were 8 fewer teams in the NBA. The extra teams have watered down the league. I would contract the league back down and get rid of teams like Toronto, Charlotte, Minnesota, Golden Gate, Sacramento, Memphis, and New Orleans. They also should reduce the season from 82 games to 70. I also wouldn't have eight teams make the playoffs from each league....reduce it down to four in each conference and shorten the playoffs. The shooting is really bad in the NBA....maybe they could move up the three point lines to where college players shoot it from....that's just where I would start.